Disciple – Equip – Partner

Simple Reflections for the New Year

Thank you for dropping by to read this post. It’s going to be short and “to the point”.

Every time a New Year rolls around, we are compelled by culture and something deep within our selves to look at it as “new leaf” time. If my 2016 was filled with some wasted time, wasted money, wasted energy, wasted calories, or wasted anything, everything will scream at me to do something about it in 2017.

The problem is that I probably do not have the self-discipline that it takes to make a serious life-style change. I may want the results of such a change, but probably will not be very happy when I have to start saying “no” to many things that I prefer in order to achieve those result. I am way too weak and undisciplined by nature.

So I need something outside of myself to carry me through the necessary changes. I need accountability and I need to look outside of myself for the strength and purpose to make different lifestyle choices. I need to know that the reason I would make such a commitment is because it is the only way for me to grow to be more like my Master.

The truth is that a resolve to engage more fully in the Great Commission – the command to “go and make disciples of all nations”- is one of those many lifestyle changes that probably will be hard to make. Everything within our comfortable selves will react to the least hint that we are considering a sacrificial commitment to this. Our ego may want to be more involved, want to give more and pray more, BUT our enemy will not want us to do more than what is self-serving and prideful. To really sacrifice and earnestly pray, and to seriously consider our responsibility for it every day will make him very angry.

So here we go. We need to realize that the entrance into 2017 with a deep commitment to the Great Commission is an entrance into a battle-field. It may cost you much more than you would have imagined and it may get very uncomfortable before it is over. But what if in spite of knowing that potential cost…

you say “yes” and you follow through on your commitments

you say “no” and realize it is nothing less than disobedience

you say “yes” but then later under the pressure of the moment your eager “yes” becomes a “no”

God in His grace is very willing to accompany you in your “yes”. He will not necessarily remove the hardships that are created by your “yes”. He will promise to be “with you always even to the end of the age”. He is looking for those who will exercise faith – because that “pleases Him”.

This is my message to myself in 2017. I am very prone to look for something easier. But I know that giving of myself to see people “reached with the Message of hope” is still the “way of the cross”. I still need to “pick up my cross and follow Him daily”. I know from experience that there will be difficult days in 2017. I will have to face those days with courage and determination to keep on following.